Wiesbaden/Berlin (dpa/lhe) - According to plans by the federal and state governments, further nationwide corona protection regulations are to expire early on March 1st - also in Hesse. On Tuesday, the health ministers agreed on an earlier end to the mask and test requirements for employees and residents in health and care facilities, which were actually set until April 7th. This was announced by the Federal Ministry of Health. For visits to medical practices, clinics and nursing homes, however, masks should still be compulsory.
Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) said that the bottom line was that the infection situation had been stable for weeks. The hospitals could take good care of corona patients. It is still important to be careful when visiting medical facilities. Anyone who visits patients or residents and makes doctor's appointments must continue to wear a mask. "The pandemic is not over yet. But the pandemic has lost its terror. The virus can be managed in everyday life. And we are drawing the necessary conclusions from that."
"Hessen supports the decision of the Federal Minister of Health to lift the test requirements for employees and visitors to vulnerable facilities on March 1, 2023, analogous to the expiring financing of the corona tests, which the federal government had decided some time ago," emphasized Hesse's Health Minister Kai Klose (Greens ). Hessen had pointed out in advance that this group of people would otherwise have had to prove that they had taken a test without being able to take advantage of a test free of charge.
In preparation for a potentially more critical pandemic situation this winter, several nationwide corona regulations were laid down in the Infection Protection Act. Most recently, the mask requirement on long-distance trains and long-distance buses was prematurely suspended at the beginning of February. According to the corresponding regulations of the federal states, there are no longer any mask requirements in local transport either. Gradually, the federal states had also phased out the obligation to isolate people infected with the corona virus.
